Pump Shutoff Cuts Nighttime Lows

Research news from the American Diabetes Association 73rd Scientific Sessions, June 21–25, 2013

Americans with diabetes may be a step closer to a closed-loop artificial pancreas system. Researchers assigned 250 people with type 1 diabetes and nighttime hypoglycemia to use a MiniMed Paradigm Real-Time Revel insulin pump, which incorporates a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), or the MiniMed Paradigm Veo, an insulin pump plus CGM that suspends insulin delivery for up to two hours when glucose levels trend down toward or drop below the hypoglycemia threshold. (The Veo is already available in many countries; a similar system, the MiniMed 530G, is awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval.) At the end of the three-month study, compared with participants whose pumps didn't automatically shut off, those using the Veo had reduced the number of nighttime lows by 31.8 percent and slashed the severity and duration of overnight lows by 37.5 percent. A1C (a measure of average blood glucose levels for the past two to three months) remained unchanged for both groups. Source: The New England Journal of Medicine, published online June 22, 2013